An Open Letter To Occupy Vancouver

Remember the first couple of weeks we were together at the VAG? Those days were beautiful, weren’t they? All of the smiles, love and group hugs made living outside in tents worthwhile- didn’t they?

Six months later, our occupation has turned-out looking like a bad joke. How did we let this happen to us? What happened to our plans to change the world and make it a better place? Why did we let ourselves be overrun by the vicious politics?

It is time for Occupy Vancouver to jump into some deep introspection and re-evaluate our core values…

1. The Movement is About Love- Ostracism is Incompatible With This

If we are trying to build a model for a better world, we failed miserably on Tuesday. If Ben did something worthy of such treatment then someone should have filed a report with the police. If Ben’s actions weren’t worthy of police attention, then they definitely weren’t worthy of a shaming through a public address system…

In particular, I’d like to say to Richard Porteous that I am deeply disappointed with what you did. You are a much better person than who you were when you read-out that aweful statement. Look deep into your heart and realize who you really are. If you can apologize to Ben, I’m sure he can find it in his heart to accept it.

2. The Movement Is About Transparency- Time To Open The Books

If what Ben is accusing the Finance Committee about is real, then we have a serious problem on our hands. Regardless of if he is wrong or if he’s right, until a full set of our accounts are complete, and audited by someone outside of the finance committee (and their cliques), there will always be people who are suspicious about what happened.

So, not only is it time to open the books on finance, but also on our relationships with outside organizations. There was always a lot of misunderstanding of our relationships with the unions and other groups. All future meetings should be attended by more than one person (and more than one clique), and full minutes should be immediately published once the meetings are over.

Transparency is one of our greatest weapons, let’s not waste it….

3. The Movement Is About Non-Violence

All sides totally lost track of this point on Tuesday. The people making the announcement were committing an act of violence against Ben, and the people who were upset with the speech and trying to push their way up the stairs were also being violent. Then there’s the issue of the Black Bloc people using their flagpoles as weapons to block people going up the stairs…

If we can’t act civilly then we most certainly aren’t ‘being the change we want to see.’ Everyone deserves a good slap on the wrists for that. (joking- sorry, I couldn’t resist)

So, what’s it going to be then young Occupy Vancouver? Are you going to try and work things out to make peace, or has the movement finally crashed into a brick wall? Because, from where I stand, it looks like you’re in desperate need of some CPR…

2 responses to “An Open Letter To Occupy Vancouver”

same with victoria too. My guess is they will just repackage everything and try to scam us all with the same crap again! Their system doesn’t have room for people like us I dunno if they would even bother trying to give it up in order to really tackle the problems humanity is facing right now. If we don’t do things their way the elites lose their powerful positions! And that is why they will never make the reasonable requests you are making a possibility. You are a heck of a lot more civil than I am around those people they are positively infuriating, especially when you know just how badly they are going to screw with your future! One that involves less government and less micromanagement. These people are all about the green fascism their beliefs are totally incompatible with people who have a solid belief in freedom. Their movement is a joke they came here saying that anything was up to be tabled and instead came out hard and fast with this repackaged communism. How fail boat! Maybe sovereign citizens can resume being the in movement because that is far preferable to the terrible dictatorial hell these people are just begging for. Marx was right there would be a rally of the lumpen-prolitariat before the actual rise of the prolitariat. All those people rallying have no clue how they are being used, or do but are just to ignorant to take notice of what mr. marx himself wrote about who they are and what role they serve in their own communist revolution.